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A key Honolulu rail board member is poised to lose his seat once his term expires this month now that the Honolulu City Council chairman has nominated someone else to replace him.
Keslie Hui has served on the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation board since 2011, and with his term set to expire June 30, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi nominated him for a new term May 19.
But three days later Council Chairman Ernie Martin nominated another candidate, real estate attorney Terrence Lee, to take Hui’s seat instead. The Council is slated to vote during a special session Tuesday on whether to appoint Lee.
Council members are not scheduled to consider Hui’s renomination.
"He’s not being reappointed," Martin said Friday. Martin said he nominated Lee because he felt that Lee would better represent the Council on the 10-member volunteer board as the approximately $6 billion public transit project struggles with cost overruns and lagging revenues.
"Being that you’re a Council nominee, you’re almost an extension of the Council itself," Martin said. He added that he was unimpressed when, during a recent nomination hearing, Hui did not give Martin a "definitive" response that it’s within the Council’s prerogative to approve, amend or reject HART’s budget.
Lee was not present to answer questions during that May 26 meeting of the Council Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee. After a discussion on the two nominees, the committee voted to forward Resolution 15-138, naming a new HART appointee, that left the name of the nominee blank.
Hui is listed as chief operations officer for real estate firm Monarch Properties, and he serves as chairman of the HART board’s finance committee. Lee is listed as a partner with the law firm Sullivan Meheula Lee, and according to the company biography he’s represented a "who’s who" of local and national developers during his more than 30-year career.
"Terry has substantial experience in all aspects of investment and development" projects, and his clients include "shopping centers, warehouses, hotels, restaurants, office buildings, service companies and other businesses," the biography states.
Neither Hui nor Lee responded to requests for comment Friday afternoon.
Under the City Charter, the mayor and City Council each appoint three of HART’s 10 board members. City and state transit directors also hold seats, and the board then votes to select a ninth member. The city’s planning director serves as a 10th, nonvoting member.
Kobayashi, who nominated Hui, said that Hui "has been doing well on the board" and, as finance chairman, got the Council a rail budget in the form that it had actually requested for the first time this year.
However, she added that "I’m sure (Lee) will do a good job" and that she would vote for Lee if that’s the nomination presented to the full Council.
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Star-Advertiser reporter Gordon Y.K. Pang contributed to this report.
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